What an amazing book is Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel [ISBN 1 85702 712 4] – not only is the book an account of the life and times of Galileo, but also gives the context of his work. Best of all it also gives this deep insight into his family life through the letters of his daughter.
What an amazing book is Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel [ISBN 1 85702 712 4] – not only is the book an account of the life and times of Galileo, but also gives the context of his work. Best of all it also gives this deep insight into his family life through the letters of his daughter.
The book details the scientific background to Galileo’s wirings and findings, especially giving a real insight into the perilous world of the scientist coming into conflict with the tenets of religion – because of course, it was heresy to say the earth went round the sun when the earth was the centre of the universe. At a personal level the book gives to touching account of his relationship with his daughter and other family members. Because Galileo did not marry his children’s mother they could not marry and therefore his two daughters were placed in a convent – one that lauded the life of extreme poverty. Through the letters one feels the deep connection between Galileo and his eldest daughter, though how anyone who loved their child could have subject her to the hardship of her life as a nun, it is difficult to see. The letters chronicle not only her care for her father, but her deep deprivation.
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